Tips
for Underweight Children
In a country
where many people suffer from obesity, it is tough to find
information on how to help your kids gain weight. Here are
some tips I've found to help my children and other family
members put on weight. Please note that if your children are
underweight you should have them evaluated by a doctor to
see if their weight problems could be caused by underlying
medical issues.
1. Track
how many calories your child eats each day. Children can
be underweight for a variety of reasons. Some may not have
much of an appetite and may not be taking in enough calories.
Another possible reason is that your child may be eating enough
food but is not absorbing the foods he or she eats. Tracking
daily calorie intake, even if just for a few days, can help
to narrow down the possible causes for your child's low body
weight.
You can
keep track of this yourself with a pencil and paper in a notebook
or if you are really serious about tracking their calories
intake, you can buy a nutrition software program. The program
I bought for my kids was called Nutribase.
I bought this program and it was really an eye opener. It
became obvious after just using the program for a few days
that my kids simply were not taking in enough calories, let
alone getting the RDA for all of the important vitamins an
minerals. With this program you
can enter what your child eats each day and compare the actual
values to recommended amounts of calories, fats, protein and
most vitamins and minerals based on your child's goal weight
and activity level.
2. Zinc
deficiency is one possible cause of a lack of appetite.
Click here for a list of foods
high in zinc. I know of a child who was given zinc supplements
for attention deficit disorder and immediately grew in height
and weight. Personally, I think it is better to try to get
zinc from your diet rather than taking artificial supplements.
This web site has a list of the symptoms
that may be associated with zinc deficiency.
3. Since
there are not many books on how to gain weight, I've found
it is helpful to read diet books to understand how to lose
weight and then do the opposite. Here are some tips for
gaining weight gleaned from the book Volumetrics.
The basic
premise of this book is that research has shown that people
tend to eat the same volume (about five pounds) of food each
day, whether that food is high or low in calories. The book
contains charts that provide the energy density of a variety
of foods. The object of the book is to show people how to
lose weight by eating more of the foods with low energy density
in order to feel full without going hungry.
For my
underweight family members, I try to provide them with some
of the foods listed in the book that are low in weight
but high in energy density, but still healthy, like nuts and
dried fruits. There are many foods in the book like cookies
and doughnuts that have high energy densities but only provide
empty calories. I try to avoid serving those at home and only
focus on foods that are both nutritious as well as
energy dense.
Relatively
healthy foods with high energy densities:
- Pasta
tossed with with olive or canola oil and shredded cheese.
I use pastas made partly with dried vegetables, such as
spinach or tomato, for some added nutrition.
- Nuts
- almonds, pecans, pistachios, peanuts (technically a legume),
cashews, etc.
- Dried
fruit - raisins, fruit leathers, dried bananas
- Higher
calories vegetables include peas, corn, potatoes and sweet
potatoes.
According
to the Volumetric's authors, water based drinks do not have
much effect on appetite, so they caution to avoid high calorie
drinks. However using this logic in reverse to gain weight,
then it would seem like nutritious high calorie drinks,
like homemade fruit and vegetable juices, may be helpful for
weight gain.
4. According
to some weight gain tips from my Ayurvedic (traditional Indian)
medicine books, people who are underweight often do better
with cooked foods. I think this is because cooking usually
makes foods easier to digest. Cooking also helps destroy any
bacteria, fungus, or other unwanted life forms that may be
on the food. I know that a lot of people say raw foods are
easier to digest, but from personal experience I would tend
to disagree. Personally I think well cooked foods, especially
foods that have been simmered for a long time, likes soups
and stews, are easiest to digest.
5. This
tip is obvious, but still worth mentioning: try to make reasonably
healthy foods your kids really enjoy eating. Your kids will
probably eat a lot more if what you serve tastes delicious.
I bought some books with healthy recipe and snack ideas especially
for kids to give me some more menu ideas.
6. Make
plenty of foods for each meal. Serve foods buffet style so
your child can easily help himself to as many servings as
he wants to eat.
7. For
dessert try serving fruit with real whipped cream for some
extra calories.
Resources
-
Healthy
Weights for Healthy Kids: What Should I Do if My Child Is
Underweight?
Good suggestions
include: macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
crackers with hummus, barley and beef soup with cornbread,
fruit smoothies made with ice cream, baked potatoes with broccoli
and cheese, beef and barley soup and more.
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